OUTLOOK | APRIL 2020 55
She smiled and nodded when asked whether she’d seen
the HOPE Alliance shuttle come by on Monday mornings with
coffee, pastries and laundry supplies.
Then she said she had to go and headed down the hill with
her backpack on.
At the same time, on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Broad
Street, Cathy Aiken-Freeman gathered input at Rome City Hall
from homeless advocates and those who have been where the
Douglasville native is now, trying to come up with workable
solutions for a variety of situations.
“Don’t rush this,” Aiken-Freeman wrote at the top of her
typed-up timeline created with the help of United Way of Rome
and Floyd County Executive Director Alli Mitchell.
Mitchell hired the former interim director of Davies Shelters
January 13 to act as staff support for the newly-formed
Interagency Council on Poverty & Homelessness.
Aiken-Freeman has given herself until the end of this year to
see her five-phase vision come to fruition.
“This is how I see this unfolding and contained in there is
also my resignation because, at some point, we will be at the
end of what I know how to do and then somebody who knows
how to run it like a business plan will need to come in and do
that,” she said. “If I do it right, then you shouldn’t need me,
right? If we build a really good plan, then I shouldn’t still be
here.”
The five phases of the plan
Phase I: From January until the end of March, the part-time
missions director at Rome First United Methodist Church talked
to as many community members as possible.
Her office walls were covered with giant sticky notes
containing the stories of those desperately seeking help.
“A mom calls in the middle of the night from the ER. Can’t
leave with kids unless she has someplace to go,” said one of
those notes.
“Aging out of foster care at 18 and nowhere to go,” said
another.
“Just out of the hospital after a diabetic coma and needs a
place to recover and rest,” another note said.
On many of the notes were smaller sticky notes with possible
solutions or resources.
For instance, on a note about a child who falls asleep in
class because of an unstable home were smaller notes listing
organizations such as the Family Resource Center, Restoration
Rome and Open Door.
For those who live in the woods and can’t or won’t leave were
notes about the importance of relationship-building and the
idea of taking portable showers to them.
Building relationships with the homeless is what HOPE
Alliance -- a group of about 12 local nonprofits led by Davies
Executive Director Devon Smyth -- does every Monday morning
at about 7:30 when they take the Davies Farm Bus out to
various homeless camps to offer coffee and other items they
might find useful.
Aiken-Freeman said that is a great example of the good work
that is already being done, but it will need to go far beyond that
in the end.
“The people living in the woods who absolutely can’t come
out and live in the shelters are still good people,” she said.
“They’re still our citizens of Rome. What does a dignified life
for them look like? What can we offer? What does a portable
shower look like? How hard would that be to make?”
In the farthest corner of her wall was a note containing only
two words: “TENT CITY.”
She said that idea seems to make people the most nervous.
“That’s a thing. It’s a phase that basically just says here’s a
sanctioned area. You are allowed to be here until we can find
something else for you,” she said. “We need to disabuse the
notion that homeless people are dangerous. It’s the criminal
element that is preying on people who are desperate. But if you
can say ‘here’s a place that’s safe and you’ll be OK where you
are, then that’s a good step for whatever comes next.”
She said when there are ordinances against camping on
public property, there needs to be private property set aside for
that purpose.
This is why she is drawn to the idea of churches allowing
those living in their cars to park in their parking lots. It’s called
“Lots of Love” in some communities, she said.
She’d also like to see churches use their own shuttles to help
those without transportation get to medical appointments or job
interviews,
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